Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Gadget of the Week

I totally forgot, in my lovin' it list from yesterday, that we have another new gadget in the house these days.

Mr Z bought a Wattson last week. I think I saw this on Click, the BBC News tech report, when they reviewed energy monitors and I loved the look of it. It is a cute little white box with a nice soft display and colour phasing lights to show how much energy is being used. The changing display means it goes really well with our 4-letter word generator, which was a wedding gift from Father Hand.

The thing that really sold it to me was that I can plug it into my PC and download our energy usage over time to it, which I think is really nifty. I haven't done this yet, but it seems we run at roughly £360/year when we're both out/sleeping. This must be all the standby things, the fridge, my alarm clock ... oh, and the 3+ computers we never switch off ;)

It was so easy to set up that when Mr Z gave it to me, he went outside to burn things (one of his most favourite pastimes) and by the time he came back in I had it all done*. Then came the obligatory running around the house, switching things on and off. The hall lights suck in quite a lot and so I am happier now about keeping them off most of the time. And I have turned my computer off overnight at least once since it arrived. I should be better at doing this, especially now I have the new PC and it boots up in less time than it takes me to go to the loo.

Anyway, I can definitely recommend it! Time will tell if it's effective in the long term, but I am hopeful that we'll see a small reduction in our energy bills.

* He doesn't know that I couldn't find a mini screwdriver and thus just sellotaped the battery cover back on over the batteries. Well, he does now.

Um...not exactly. But it certainly makes us think more about electricity usage. I'm much better at turning out lights. In fact, it's not plugged in at the moment because we're decorating, and I've just realised I've left the kitchen light on!